Alex Lawson has been executive director of Social Security Works for longer than the 16+ years that I've known him, fighting to save and expand Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and speaking truth to power everywhere to everyone. Today he joined me for the whole hour and brought it, including our plans for the People's State of the Union address Tuesday evening, Feb 24, while the orange liar-in-chief spews his lies to whomever will listen to him.

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The questions are never-ending. I'll just have to figure out which ones to ask Chris Geidner, who covers all things court and law related at lawdork.com, as he returns to the show today.. Already today, Chris told us that in cases brought by the NEA and AFT, there are now final court orders: Last year's anti-DEI "Dear Colleague" letter is vacated and unenforceable. DOJ/DOE gave up the fight, dismissing the appeal and case in the Fourth Circuit and subsequently dismissing the the second case with a stipulation. And yesterday, a Bush-appointed judge in PA ruled against the administration about removing a display about slavery, as the idiot in charge wants to rewrite history. And lots more...

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I'm back today but barely... Today is the Chinese Lunar New Year - the start of the Year of the Horse. It's also Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday. I didn't sleep last night and had to be up early today for a CT scan... and my guest fell through. This should be fun

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We've reached another Friday, so that means that Marcy Wheeler takes a quick break from emptywheel.net to join us to discuss much of what happened this week and, as usual, there was a lot. And because it all centers around the shit that the orange blob has pushed on us, there's a whole lot of bad. But, as Marcy reminds us, so much is in flux... so keep that in mind, as minds are changing, and opening... The more you LEARN.... 

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Heads are still spinning everywhere, thanks to Dump's Bimbo General Pam Blondi and the show she put on yesterday in front of the House Judiciary Committee and the world. She already showed us her slam book and angry act, and it didn't work the first time. Why she thought it would this time is beyond my understanding of stupidity. We'll talk about that and some other news in real time... Then Jason Leopold will take some time out of his very busy day dealing with FOIA documents, writing his weekly FOIA Files newsletter, co-hosting his "Disclosure" podcast, and I think I read something about producing a movie? Jason is a dear friend of mine, but we speak too infrequently. We'll fix that today!

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The horrendous excuse for a human being Pam Bondi appeared on Capitol Hill today to answer questions from the House Judiciary Committee about the Epstein files and whatever else they want to ask her about. It really didn't matter because she refused to answer any questions at all. She did as she has in prior hearings, deflecting, accusing and snidely smirking. She is a despicable kisser of the dick-tator's ass. I'm just surprised I haven't seen the brown shit smeared all over her face. I did pull clips, but frankly, I'd rather sit back and let my favorite legal authority - the brilliant Lisa Graves, author of "Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights" - explain wtaf Blondi is doing today.

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We have a lot of frozen territory to cover today. That's because ICE and its superiors at HSI and CBP were on Capitol Hill today for questions from the House Homeland Security Committee.. I watched it so you didn't have to, and I've got clips . Plus the latest on the Epstein files, Spocko on Bad Bunny and more...

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Like taxes and death, Mondays are inevitable. And despite how much we wish this current news cycle would just end already, I'm afraid we're stuck with it until the fascist dick-tator keels over. Luckily, as he does every Monday, Jonathan Larsen will join me for the second half of today's show. Jonathan, of course, writes up the news daily at The Fucking News with the right amount of snarks and, because he still has some to give, an appropriate number of fucks too. Jonathan also shares his original reporting in a more respectable manner at his self-titled substack... And yes, there's so much of it today that I'm already exhausted...

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This was a very strange week. Yes, there were quite a few offensive, disgusting and illegal things done by Dump and his cronies this week, but that's par for this shitty course. However, as I told emptywheel.net's Marcy Wheeler at the start of today's show, somehow the ominous foreboding seemed more intense. I feel that pit in my stomach dancing like jumping beans. Even though we ran even longer than usual today, we still didn't get to everything, but we did cover a lot of territory. 

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Apologies for the headline, but Driftglass is such a talented writer, I thought I should take a shot at a clever headline. Sadly, what that orange pile of narcissism in the White House is doing to us and covering how he's destroying life in what's left of our country has depleted my energy.

I somehow manage to make it through each day, taking it one day at a time. And I don't even drink! As you probably know by now, I seek out guests to join me on the air who also don't hold back. Today it's one of the OGs of the progressive blogosphere, Driftglass. He's been speaking truth to power since the beginning at driiftglass.blogspot.com. And with his wonderful wife, BlueGal Fran, co-hosts the Professional Left Podcast. You can find them at proleftpod.com. It's Driftglass today, hanging here with me!

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